ENVIRONMENTAL FRIENDLY IMPROVEMENT OF ANTIBACTERIAL PROPERTIES OF BACTERIAL CELLULOSE NANOFIBERS

Cristina Campano, Helena Oliver-Ortega, Pere Mutjé, Angeles Blanco and Carlos Negro

Chemical Engineering Department, Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain

Abstract

Social and technical developments have made people be more aware of working and living hygiene. Thus, research about functional antibacterial materials have increased in last years. Bacterial cellulose (BC) has been widely used due to its exceptional properties such as high biocompatibility and mechanical properties, etc. However, its antimicrobial activity is not high enough for specific purposes. Benzalkonium Chloride (BZK) is known as biocide and cationic surfactant, but it is human toxic at high concentrations. However, Chitosan (CH) is presented as a non-toxic natural polymer with antibacterial and antifungal properties. In this study, BC membranes were produced by static culture of Komagataeibacter sucrofermentans. After that, they were homogenized at 600 bar, thus obtaining BC nanofibers (BCNF). Then, BCNF have been modified by the cross-linking with different proportions of CH and BZK. Antibacterial properties of the BCNF/CH and BCNF/BZK materials were tested through the agar diffusion test. Escherichia Coli as a gram-negative bacteria and Staphylococcus aureus as a gram-positive bacterium were chosen as model microorganisms. Also, their morphology was observed through SEM.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Authors acknowledge Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for the financial support of this study by the project “NANOSOLPAPELREC” (Ref. CTQ2013-48090-C2-1-R) and the grant of C. Campano (BES-2014-068177).

Keywords: Bacterial cellulose, nanofibers, antimicrobial properties, chitosan, benzalkonium chloride, agar diffusion.